Review: Forum Youngblood Chillydog

Stiff Snowboard Handles Like a '73 Buick

Sometimes you just don’t get lucky. We tested the Youngblood Chillydog on a gritty icepick of a day with just enough new snow to disguise ice patches — never mind softening them. But hey, we at Wired love testing new equipment in the toughest conditions, so we clipped in and headed down the mountain.

To our astonishment (and delight) we found an untouched run, tucked in between the trees. The wind disappeared, and the snow was new and deep. The nose of this park board floated above the powder and gave us a fast ride down to the bottom of the run. For a brief, shining moment the day turned around.

This board’s continuous rocker is shaped like the bottom half of a circle, with extra pop in the nose and tail. This shape is meant to increase the board’s versatility. The Chillydog performs well in powder, and is actually very forgiving with poorly executed jumps.

The nasty conditions soon picked up again, and because of the low visibility, we took a few big unplanned jumps. Surprisingly, the Chillydog let us keep our footing, even when we landed awkwardly.

Still, this is not a board for those with slight builds. We found the board stiff to press on flat ground and rails, and this inflexibility combined with the board’s rocker to make the Chillydog squirrelly on groomers. Turning at high speeds felt like steering a triceratops. The board seemed intent on following its whims, even as we threw weight back and forth to make it pay attention.

In short, the Chillydog is like your weird uncle from Wyoming — full of obscure skills that come in handy in very specific situations, but difficult to deal with on a day-to-day basis. In attempting to create a board that’s perfect on everything from park to powder, Forum basically stretched this one far too thin.